City officials skeptical of postal plans

Brian Lockhart

Updated 12:15 am, Wednesday, July 9, 2014

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Being heard by mailAnyone wishing to speak out on the future of the Barnum Postal Station has two weeks to submit comments to: U.S. Postal Service, Attention: Joseph Mulvey, 2 Congress St., Room 8, Milford, MA 01757-9998.

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BRIDGEPORT -- City officials are PO'd over post office downsizing.

A month after announcing plans to shrink the Barnum Postal Station on Fairfield Avenue -- one of four post offices in Bridgeport -- a U.S. Postal Service representative met with the City Council and Mayor Bill Finch on Monday and was told to keep the downsizing in the suburbs.

"This is a city of 150,000 people," Finch said. "The city of Bridgeport's getting shortchanged here."

It was the perfect opportunity for Finch and the rest of the city's mostly Democratic politicians to vent their frustrations that Bridgeport is constantly treated like the ugly stepchild to the region's towns.

"What are you downsizing in Stratford, Shelton and some of those other places?" Councilwoman Denese Taylor-Moye, D-131, told the dispassionate postal employee, Joseph Mulvey.

Councilwoman Susan Brannelly, D-130, whose district is home to the Barnum building, noted that neighboring Fairfield, with a population of roughly 57,000, has three post offices to Bridgeport's four.

Council President Thomas McCarthy, D-133, suggested to Mulvey that his bosses instead target Fairfield's Commerce Drive post office, located just over a mile from the Barnum site.

"I bet you nobody walks to that station," McCarthy said, referring to critics' argument that the Barnum postal facility is within walking distance of public and senior housing developments.

Mulvey, often reading from a prepared statement, reiterated that the 11,000 square feet of retail space the postal service leases at its Fairfield Avenue address is simply too big and too expensive.

"The postal service is facing one of the most critical periods in its history," Mulvey said. "In the face of unsustainable deficits, the postal service must cut costs, increase revenue and use its facilities as efficiently as possible."

Councilman Rick Torres, R-130, said that while the surge in electronic mail is one reason for those financial troubles, low-income customers like those living near the Barnum building are less likely to have that luxury.

Mulvey continually emphasized that the goal is not to close the Barnum station, but relocate it nearby to a smaller site or work out a deal with the landlord to rent less space in the Barnum building.

McCarthy recalled the Postal Service saying the same thing when it closed a site in the North End.